Slight disorder effects in two dimensional photonic crystal structures

In the actual manufacturing process of photonic crystal structure, unavoidable error can generate slight disorder which may influence the performance of photonic crystal based device. In this work, randomly distributional disorders are applied to the air holes in the photonic crystal structure. Based on this, we investigate the influence of the slight disorder on the photonic crystal band structure and the performance of photonic crystal based devices (waveguide and slab cavity). The studies indicate that the slight disorder provides small influence on the band structure of the photonic crystal. But, the random disorder in photonic crystal waveguide may increase transmission loss obviously when the wavelength of the light and the distribution of disorder break the balance of multiple interferences. Also, the slight disorder can reduce the Q factor of the photonic crystal cavity at a certain degree. The studies may provide some useful guides for further photonic crystal device research.     

Engineering disorder in three-dimensional photonic crystals

We demonstrate the effect of introducing controlled disorder in self-assembled three-dimensional photonic crystals. Disorders are induced through controlling the self-assembling process using an electrolyte of specific concentrations. Structural characterization reveals increase in disorder with increase in concentrations of the electrolyte. Reflectivity and transmittance spectra are measured to probe the photonic stop gap at different levels of controlled disorder. With increase in disorder the stop gap is vanished and that results in a fully random photonic nanostructure where the diffuse scattered intensity reaches up to 100%. The estimated scattering mean free path shows significant reduction for photonic crystals with 100% controlled disorder as compared to those with 0% controlled disorder. Our random photonic nanostructure is unique in which all scatters have the same size and shape. Therefore, we observe the resonant characteristics in the multiple scattering of light.     

The disorder effect on the performance of novel waveguides constructed in two-dimensional amorphous photonic materials

On the basis of two-dimensional amorphous photonic materials,we have designed a novel waveguide by inserting thinner cylindrical inclusions in the centre of basic hexagonal units of the amorphous structure along a given path.This waveguide in amorphous structure is similar to the coupled resonator optical waveguides in periodic photonic crystals.The transmission of this waveguide for S-polarized waves is investigated by a multiple-scattering method.Compared with the conventional waveguide by removing a line of cells from amorphous photonic materials,the guiding properties of this waveguide,including the transmissivity and bandwidth,are improved significantly.Then we study the effect of various types of positional disorder on the functionality of this device.Our results show that the waveguide performance is quite sensitive to the disorder located on the boundary layer of the waveguide,but robust against the disorder in the other area in amorphous structure except the waveguide border.This disorder effect in amorphous photonic materials is similar to the case in periodic photonic crystals.     

Tetragonal photonic woodpile structures

The photonic properties of dielectric woodpile structures with face-centered-tetragonal (fct) and body-centered-tetragonal (bct) lattice symmetries are theoretically studied. Computational calculation of the photonic band structure reveals a photonic band gap between the second and third photonic band in both symmetries. A complete photonic band gap is not found in the bct structure due to a band gap shift with variable direction of lightflow. When the degree of layer disorder in fct woodpiles is increased, the stop bands slightly narrow and the attenuation of the optical transmission is reduced. Even so, layer-to-layer misalignment in dielectric woodpile structures may be tolerable up to 20–30% in most applications. The complete photonic band gap in fct woodpiles remains open with planar layer-to-layer disorder up to 60–70%.     

异质结构光子晶体的能带特性研究

运用光学传输矩阵理论,研究了异质结构光子晶体的能带特性。结果表明,与周期结构相比异质结构光子晶体可以显著地拓宽光子晶体的光子带隙;在该文提出的结构中引入缺陷,与(1H1L)m(1H)n(1L1H)m光子晶体相比,产生缺陷模式光子带隙范围明显拓宽,适当调整缺陷层的数目、位置和厚度可得到多通道滤波;并研究了实际操作中随机误差带来的影响,随无序度的增大,其带宽基本不变。     

一维无序结构光子晶体的能带特性研究

通过引入结构参数a，深入研究了具有无序结构的一维二元光子晶体的能带特性。研究发现，无序结构有效拓宽了光子带隙，与均匀结构相比，拓宽率达到200％以上；无序一维光子晶体表现出从可见到红外很宽区域的高反射特性。本文还计算和分析了入射角和无序度D对光子晶体带隙的影响。     

Transition of lasing modes in disordered active photonic crystals

The transition from a photonic band-edge laser to a random laser in two-dimensional active photonic crystals is described. The lasing modes in the active photonic crystals shift from the edge of the photonic bandgap to the bulk of the gap when a certain amount of position and size disorder is introduced. The shift of lasing modes is determined with various gain profiles. The results show that the modulation of lasing modes is significant when the lasing transition wavelength overlaps the photonic bandgap.     

Disorders influences on the focusing effect of all-dielectric photonic crystal slab superlens

The influences of structure disorders on the subwavelength focusing properties of an all-dielectric photonic crystal slab superlens are theoretically studied. The structure disorders are considered as randomly perturbing the position or diameter of air holes of the photonic crystal slab. The results show that the photonic crystal slab superlens can tolerate within 10% degree of positional disorder or 15% degree of diameter disorder without destroying the focusing function.     

Photon localization in amorphous photonic crystal

The photon localization in disordered two-dimensional photonic crystal is studied theoretically. It is found that the mean transmission coefficient in the photonic band decreases exponentially as the disorder degree increases, reflecting the occurrence of Anderson localization. The strength of photon localization can be controlled by tuning the disorder degree in the photonic crystal. We think the variation regular of the transmission coefficient in our disordered system is equivalent to that of the scaling theory of localization. PACS 42.70.Qs; 41.20.Jb; 42.25.Dd     

Self-optimization of optical confinement in an ultraviolet photonic crystal slab laser

We studied numerically and experimentally the effects of structural disorder on the performance of ultraviolet photonic crystal slab lasers. Optical gain selectively amplifies the high-quality modes of the passive system. For these modes, the in-plane and out-of-plane leakage rates may be automatically balanced in the presence of disorder. The spontaneous optimization of in-plane and out-of-plane confinement of light in a photonic crystal slab may lead to a reduction of the lasing threshold.     

Photonic Bandgap Deformation in a Nonideal Synthetic Opal Photonic Crystal

The Bragg diffraction in synthetic opal as a 3D photonic crystals has been analyzed using the weak disorder model in various approximations. For a one-domain crystal, the photonic bandgap is calculated in the regime of reflection along the 〈111〉 axis. In the multidomain case, a considerable expansion of the photonic bandgap, the emergence of asymmetry, and the photon band shift to the short-wavelength region are demonstrated. The results are compared with experimental dependences.     

Light exiting from real photonic band gap crystals is diffuse and strongly directional

Any photonic crystal is in practice periodic with some inevitable fabricational imperfections. We have measured angle-resolved transmission of photons that are multiply scattered by this disorder in strongly photonic crystals. Peculiar non-Lambertian distributions occur as a function of frequency: due to internal diffraction, wide angular ranges of strongly reduced diffuse transmission coincide with photonic stop bands, while enhancements occur for directions outside stop gaps. We quantitatively explain the experiment with a model incorporating diffusion and band structure on equal footing. We predict that in the event of a photonic band gap, diffuse light at frequencies near band gap edges can exit only along isolated directions. Angle-resolved diffuse transmission appears to be the photonic equivalent of angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy.     

Experimental evidence of photonic band gap extension for disordered 1D photonic crystals based on Si

We have shown theoretically and experimentally the possibility of PBG extension by introducing a silicon wall thickness disorder into the photonic structure. Experiments have been conducted in the infrared spectrum range and calculations have been performed for 1D photonic crystals based on a grooved-silicon structure.     

Extrinsic optical scattering loss in photonic crystal waveguides: role of fabrication disorder and photon group velocity

Formulas are presented that provide clear physical insight into the phenomenon of extrinsic optical scattering loss in photonic crystal waveguides due to random fabrication imperfections such as surface roughness and disorder. Using a photon Green-function-tensor formalism, we derive explicit expressions for the backscattered and total transmission losses. Detailed calculations for planar photonic crystals yield extrinsic loss values in overall agreement with experimental measurements, including the full dispersion characteristics. We also report that loss in photonic crystal waveguides scales inversely with group velocity, at least, thereby raising serious questions about future low-loss applications based on operating frequencies that approach the photonic band edge.     

Photonic quantum-well structures containing negative-index materials

The properties of photonic quantum-well structures containing negative-index materials are studied theoretically, showing features remarkably better than conventional photonic quantum-well structures. Owning to the zero- gap of one-dimensional photonic crystals containing negative-index materials, the photonic quantum-well structures can be proposed as a multiple channeled filter which is very weak dependent on incident angle and polarization, and insensitive to the thickness disorder of the barrier photonic crystals.     

Band gap structure of disordered chiral photonic crystals

Based on the non-symmetric transmission-line method, the band gap structure of disordered chiral photonic crystals (CPC) has been investigated. The influence of the chiral parameters, the disorder, the periods and the refractive index on the band gap structure has been discussed. It is found that the photonic band gap (PBG) in CPC is more obvious than that in the conventional photonic crystals, and the PBG can be increased by increasing the periods or the contrast of the refractive index of the two media. It is also found that the existence of disorder will influence the band edge of the PBG, and such influence will increase with the increment of periods or the contrast of the refractive index of the two media.     

对称型单负交替一维光子晶体的能带结构

构造了(AB)^N(BA)^N对称型两种单负材料交替一维光子晶体,利用传输矩阵法进行数值模拟.结果表明：这种单负交替对称型一维光子晶体具有一种特殊带隙结构,该带隙不敏感于入射角和晶格的无序性.在该带隙内出现了两个隧穿模,该隧穿模不敏感于入射角的改变和晶格的无序性,但能带及带隙内的隧穿模却敏感于晶格标度和周期数的变化;随着入射角的改变,带隙两侧的隧穿模趋于简并.这些特性对在利用此结构光子晶体设计双重超窄带滤波器时,具有一定的参考价值. 关键词： 光子晶体 单负材料 光子带隙     

Effects of disorder on propagation losses and cavity Q-factors in photonic crystal slabs

A theoretical model of disorder for the etched holes or pillars in a generic two-dimensional photonic crystal slab is presented. This model is employed to calculate the effects of size disorder on propagation losses in linear photonic crystal waveguides as well as on quality (Q)-factors in photonic crystal nano-cavities. The main results obtained by the present theory and shown in this work are: (a) large single-mode bandwidth and low-loss (<0.1 dB/mm) propagation of light is predicted for increased-width membrane-type photonic crystal waveguides, (b) pillar-based lattices show reduced sensitivity to size fluctuations than hole-based ones, (c) the effects of disorder on cavity Q-factors are quantitatively evaluated. An extension of the model is also introduced in order to take into account the side-wall micro-roughness of the perfectly vertical holes, and preliminary results of this more general approach are discussed.     

Disorder-induced localization of light near edges of nonlinear photonic lattices

We investigated the influence of edges and corners on the Anderson localization of light in disordered two-dimensional photonic lattices that are optically induced in nonlinear saturable photorefractive media. A systematic quantitative study of gradual transition from corner to bulk Anderson localization in truncated two-dimensional photonic lattices was carried out. We analyzed numerically the localization at several corners and edges of the square and triangular photonic lattices and compared them with the localization in bulk medium. We found that, for strong disorder, corners and edges effectively suppress Anderson localization, as compared to the bulk, but to a varying degree.